1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a maintenance sheet and a liquid ejecting apparatus.
2. Related Art
A full-line ink jet printer (hereinafter simply referred to as “printer”) serving as an ink jet printer (liquid ejecting apparatus) for performing printing on a recording sheet serving as a target at high speed has been suggested. In this kind of printer, there is a possibility that a rise in ink viscosity or solidification caused by evaporation of an ink solvent from nozzles of a recording head serving as a liquid ejection head, adhesion of dust, and clogging of a nozzle caused by entrainment of bubbles may occur. There is also a possibility that the ink discharged from a nozzle of the recording head may adhere and solidify in the vicinity of a nozzle opening of a nozzle formation surface due to rebounding from a recording sheet, etc., or deviation of the direction of discharge of ink from a nozzle, and clogging of a nozzle may be caused. Therefore, in such a printer, as maintenance for suppressing clogging of a nozzle of the recording head, capping of bringing a cap member into abutment with the nozzle formation surface so as to surround the nozzle opening of the nozzle formation surface, and wiping of the nozzle formation surface by a wiper member are executed appropriately.
That is, in a printer described in JP-A-2005-53119, a maintenance sheet (hereinafter referred to as “first related-art maintenance sheet”) that is brought into abutment with a nozzle formation surface of a recording head and thereby allowed to perform capping is used, and the first related-art maintenance sheet is transported by a sheet transport mechanism from a non-maintenance position where the abutment of the nozzle formation surface of the recording head is not allowed to a maintenance position where the abutment is allowed. Also, the first related-art maintenance sheet is pushed against the nozzle formation surface of the recording head by urging the first related-art maintenance sheet transported to the maintenance position upward. Accordingly, according to this configuration, the capping operation of capping the nozzle formation surface by the cap member is allowed without moving the recording head towards a non-printing region from a printing position.
Further, in a printer described in JP-A-2002-192737, a wiping sheet (hereinafter referred to as “second related-art maintenance sheet”) that can wipe a nozzle formation surface of a recording head is used to perform wiping. That is, a wiper section composed of a number of thin hairs is formed in the second related-art maintenance sheet. Also, at least one of the second related-art maintenance sheet and a recording head in a passing-each-other direction in a state where sliding contact between the tip of the wiper section and the nozzle formation surface of the recording head is maintained is moved relative to each other, thereby wiping adhering matter, such as ink and dust, adhering to the nozzle formation surface of the recording head.
Meanwhile, although the first related-art maintenance sheet used for the printer described in JP-A-2005-53119 has a function of capping the nozzle formation surface of the recording head, it does not have other maintenance functions (function of wiping the nozzle formation surface, etc.). Also, although the second related-art maintenance sheet used for the printer described in JP-A-2002-192737 has a function of wiping the nozzle formation surface of the recording head, it does not have other maintenance functions (a function of capping the nozzle formation surface, etc.). Accordingly, when execution of a plurality of kinds of maintenance (for example, capping and wiping) is attempted in each of the printers described in the JP-A-2005-53119 and JP-A-2002-192737, both the first related-art maintenance sheet and the second related art maintenance sheet may be selectively used, if required, in each printer.
However, in this case, it is necessary to transport the first related-art maintenance sheet to the maintenance position when the nozzle formation surface of the recording head is to be capped. On the other hand, it is necessary to transport the second related-art maintenance sheet to the maintenance sheet when the nozzle formation surface is to be wiped. That is, there are problems in that it is necessary to perform a complicated control of selecting and transporting any one of various maintenance sheets if required, and when various kinds of maintenance are performed continuously, the control thereof becomes complicated, and consequently various kinds of maintenance cannot be executed efficiently.
Further, each of the above related-art maintenance sheets is not provided with a configuration that allows execution of so-called cleaning that sucks ink from the inside of a nozzle of the recording head. Therefore, for example, even if a printer is equipped with the related art maintenance sheets, there is a problem in that a cleaning device having a suction pump, etc. should be provided separately from the related-art maintenance sheets.